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May 2012
24 May 2012
Brazil-based vehicle, railroad car and auto parts producer Randon Implementos e Participações has unveiled a five-year, 2.5 billion Reais ($1.2 billion) investment plan to boost revenues and expand capacities.
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24 May 2012
Severstal, Russia’s second-largest steelmaker, expects export prices for the country’s steel products to fall on lower costs and weak demand in Europe, the company said on Thursday May 24.
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24 May 2012
Sales at Severstal North America were up by 23% in the first quarter of 2012, compared with the previous three months, on strong demand in the USA, the Russia-based steelmaker said on Thursday May 24.
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24 May 2012
US steel imports fell 2.3 percent to 2.72 million tonnes in April from more than 2.78 million tonnes the previous month but were 17.6 percent above 2.31 million tonnes a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
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23 May 2012
Brazilian flat steel distributors and service centres bought 11% less steel in April than in the previous month, local association Inda said.
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23 May 2012
Usiminas’ No.2 blast furnace at the Cubatão 4.5 million tpy steel plant in Brazil’s São Paulo state has been operating at full speed following a fire that shut it down late last week.
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23 May 2012
ArcelorMittal Tubarão plans to stop its 2.8 million tpy No.3 blast furnace for maintenance after its currently idle No.1 furnace comes back online.
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22 May 2012
The Argentinian steel industry will invest more than $300 million this year to increase capacity and expand its range of products, the country’s steel association, Acero Argentino, said.
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22 May 2012
The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into the proposed €2.7 billion ($3.45 billion) merger of stainless steel makers Inoxum and Outokumpu, it said on Tuesday May 22.
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22 May 2012
Evraz Highveld Steel & Vanadium blamed challenging market conditions and rising imports for a first-quarter loss in underlying earnings.
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22 May 2012
RG Steel LLC temporarily idled the blast furnace at its Sparrows Point, Md., steelmaking complex Friday because of material issues, according to a company spokeswoman.
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21 May 2012
London Metal Exchange official three-month steel billet prices dropped to $425/435 on Monday May 21, from $440/450 on May 18.
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21 May 2012
Global crude steel production in April went up slightly year-on-year, showing a 1.2% increase, according to the World Steel Assn (worldsteel).
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21 May 2012
Hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to India for material mainly of Chinese origin have fallen by at least $10 per tonne over the past two weeks on the weakening rupee-dollar exchange rate, market participants told Metal Bulletin.
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21 May 2012
China’s export prices for cold rolled coil have declined further on fewer transactions and weak domestic prices.
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21 May 2012
Japan's largest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, expects its crude steel output to hit 7.6-7.7 million tonnes in the April-June quarter, due to stronger-than-expected domestic car output.
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21 May 2012
Indonesia’s Krakatau Steel is keeping its hot rolled coil prices unchanged for June.
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21 May 2012
Steel traders in Russia’s domestic market are holding “high” or “extremely high” stock levels of hot rolled coil and cold rolled coil (HRC and CRC) because of a lack of state orders, traders told Metal Bulletin on Monday May 21.
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21 May 2012
Latin American steelmakers will probably not be interested in buying ThyssenKrupp’s 5 million tpy CSA Siderúrgica do Atlântico slab plant in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, regional analysts say.
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21 May 2012
Polish steel supplier ThyssenKrupp Energostal has installed new equipment at its logistics centre in the south of the country for the processing of flat rolled products.
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19 May 2012
A transition appears to be near at California Steel Industries Inc. (CSI), one of two major West Coast flat-rolled steel producers, with the company’s owners said to be considering a change at the top, according to industry sources.
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19 May 2012
In a second asset-related move in as many days, a top RG Steel LLC executive said Thursday that the privately held steelmaker was evaluating a variety of options regarding the future of the facilities it purchased for a reported $1.2 billion early last year from Severstal North America Inc.
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19 May 2012
At least half a dozen major scrap suppliers have confirmed they have cut off shipments—or are demanding payment in advance—at RG Steel LLC’s mills in Warren, Ohio, and Sparrows Point, Md.
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19 May 2012
ThyssenKrupp AG might have to take a big haircut on its Steel Americas operations if it hopes to find a buyer in the near term, analysts and industry observers said.
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18 May 2012
A growing number of Brazilian flat steel distributors and service centres have been receiving indications from local steelmakers about possible price rises of about 5% in the domestic market within the next few months.
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18 May 2012
Tata Steel’s financial results for the fourth quarter of its 2012 financial year (January-March 2012) fell year-on-year, with its European operations weighing down results.
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18 May 2012
British-based steel stockholder Barrett Steel has acquired two stockholding subsidiaries of the Murray Group, saving more than 40 jobs across the two sites, a spokesperson for the group said on Friday May 18.
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18 May 2012
The euro crisis and falling nickel prices will put flat-rolled stainless steel prices in Europe’s domestic market under heavy pressure, market sources told Metal Bulletin on Friday May 18.
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18 May 2012
Finnish steelmaking group Rautaruukki has signed a contract with Sweden-based rolling stock manufacturer Kiruna Wagon to supply steel plates for wagons to be used at the company’s iron ore mine in Pajala, Sweden, Ruukki said on Friday May 18.
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18 May 2012
US steel mills shipped 8.5 million net tons in March, up 1.3% from 8.4 million tons from the previous month, according to American Iron and Steel Institute data.
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17 May 2012
Vauxhall is to build its new version of the Astra automobile at its Ellesmere Port in England and invest £125 million ($199.4 million) in a plant upgrade, the manufacturer announced on Thursday May 17.
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17 May 2012
Prices for cold rolled coil (CRC) in Turkey’s domestic market remained flat for the week as traders and stockists largely continued to waiting for a revival in end-user demand.
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17 May 2012
Domestic hot rolled coil prices in Turkey widened the $10 spread of the past two weeks, as market players anticipate a prolonged period of compromise from the major mills.
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17 May 2012
Southern European import prices for hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC) fell this week as currency fluctuations led to exporters lowering prices, trading sources told Metal Bulletin.
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17 May 2012
Southern European hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC) prices shifted downwards this week on the back of overcapacity in the region and a poor market climate, traders told Metal Bulletin on Wednesday 16 May.
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17 May 2012
Buyers in Vietnam are sitting out of the hot rolled coil import market for the eighth consecutive week as they wait for offer prices from main supplier China to slide further.
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17 May 2012
Steel sales to the Brazil’s motorcycle industry have been affected by tighter banking credit restrictions in the Latin American country over the past few months.
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17 May 2012
Taigang Stainless has cut its domestic stainless steel prices for a third month in June, tracking falling nickel prices and a weak spot market.
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17 May 2012
Latin American steel mills produced 6.1 million tonnes of crude steel in April 2012, up by 5% compared with the same month in 2011.
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17 May 2012
Anshan Steel is reducing its June prices for some of its products as a result of the weak spot market.
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16 May 2012
Brazil’s flat steel re-roller and service centre Mangels plans to be among the two largest players in the local re-rolling industry by 2015.
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16 May 2012
Italian pipemaking group Marcegaglia is looking into opening a representative office in Turkey for the sale of its products, a source at the company told Metal Bulletin.
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16 May 2012
Poor demand in Europe due to economic uncertainty, plus falling raw material costs, have seen heavy plate prices in Europe’s domestic market fall by €20-30 ($26-38) per tonne over the last week, market sources told Metal Bulletin.
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16 May 2012
Shipments of rolled steel from ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the steelmaker’s Kazakhstan unit, fell by 9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 on weak export demand, the company said on Tuesday May 15.
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16 May 2012
Finnish steelmaker Rautaruukki will begin negotiations with employees as part of its project to improve competitiveness through efficiency measures including redundancies, the company said on Wednesday May 16.
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16 May 2012
ArcelorMittal España’s decision to idle the blast furnace at its Asturias division will not have any long-term effects on employees, a company spokesman told Metal Bulletin on Tuesday May 16.
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16 May 2012
China’s steel markets remained sluggish on Wednesday May 16 with both spot and futures prices recording falls.
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16 May 2012
Output at ArcelorMittal’s steelmaking unit in Kazakhstan was reduced after a fire at the plant killed two people, the company said late on Tuesday May 15.
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16 May 2012
Thailand’s Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) swung to a loss in the first quarter of 2012 due to expenses incurred in restarting its Teesside plant in England.
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15 May 2012
German steelmaker Salzgitter reported a significant loss in its first quarter pre-tax earnings for 2012, the company said in a financial report on Tuesday May 15.
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15 May 2012
Cold rolled coil (CRC) import prices into the Gulf remained stable this week as traders mainly browsed the variety of offers in a slow trading quarter.
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15 May 2012
Hot rolled coil (HRC) import prices into the Gulf went down by $10 per tonne this week.
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15 May 2012
Revenues at Germany-based SKW Stahl-Metallurgie rose by 12% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 owing to a slight rise in demand from the steel industry, the group said on Tuesday May 15.
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15 May 2012
Novolipetsk Steel, Russia’s fourth-biggest steelmaker, left its June-rolled domestic hot rolled coil and cold rolled coil prices unchanged, two traders who got the company's offers said.
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15 May 2012
Kobe Steel is hiking its prices for sheet products amid signs of a pick-up in domestic demand, following in the footsteps of JFE Steel and Nippon Steel.
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15 May 2012
Japan's Nakayama Steel Works will shut its 240,000 tpy plate mill this year, underlining the challenge facing Japanese plate producers facing a supply glut and falling demand in Asia.
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14 May 2012
Romanian flats producer ArcelorMittal Galati plans to restart production at its heavy plate mill No.1 in June, to offset possible bottlenecks at its second plate mill.
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14 May 2012
Russia’s NLMK has commissioned a 5.8 million tpy hot metal desulphurisation unit for its Lipetsk steelmaking facility.
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14 May 2012
Metal Bulletin’s Daily Ferrous Scrap Index fell to $444.16 per tonne cfr Iskenderun on an HMS 1&2 (80:20) basis on Monday May 14, down from $446.93 on May 11.
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14 May 2012
Egyptian Iron & Steel (Hadisolb) made $25.2 million in steel sales in March 2012, although it produced less than half its target output for the month, the company said this week.
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14 May 2012
Sluggish demand and plentiful scrap supplies have seen CIS-origin pig iron prices drop by $5-10 per tonne in the past week.
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14 May 2012
Workers protesting against closures at ArcelorMittal’s Florange steelworks in eastern France took their grievances to the steelmaker’s annual general shareholders meeting in Luxembourg last week, the company told Metal Bulletin on Monday May 14.
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14 May 2012
Brazilian flats and iron ore producer CSN considers the decision by the country’s competition regulator, Cade, on its strategy regarding Usiminas as “tough”, a senior executive said during a conference call for analysts and investors on Friday May 11.
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14 May 2012
Brazil-based mining and steelmaking company CSN expects the long steel products division it is developing to benefit from synergies with its cement division, as well as its own flat steel distribution chain, sales director Luiz Martinez said on Friday May 11.
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14 May 2012
Iran’s crude steel output rose 15% in its first calendar month, figures show, defying sanctions and leading some to believe that the country can be self-sufficient as early as 2015.
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12 May 2012
West Coast buyers of commodity steel plate who are already concerned about what they fear are growing stocks in the region’s warehouses are beginning to see offers from yet another unexpected offshore source: Japan.
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12 May 2012
Prices for most traded metal commodities fell in April and are now well off peaks from 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index (PPI) report released Friday.
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11 May 2012
RG Steel LLC moved forward a planned maintenance outage at its Sparrows Point, Md., blast furnace this past week in an effort to take advantage of a period of weaker demand, a company executive told AMM.
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11 May 2012
Brazilian flat steel and iron ore producer CSN reported an 85% year-on-year decline in net profit in the first quarter of 2012, mainly as a consequence of lower iron ore shipments and prices.
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11 May 2012
Italy’s open trading terms could exacerbate the current oversupply of steel in the market even further, sources in Milan told Metal Bulletin this week on the sidelines of the Eurometal Steel Net Forum.
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11 May 2012
Italian steel exports to countries outside the European Union rose by 24.5% year-on-year to 1.448 million tonnes in January-March 2012, according to the Italian steel industry association (Federacciai).
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11 May 2012
Spot rebar prices fell further on Friday May 11 as raw materials prices continued to soften and Shagang, China’s largest longs producer, announced a price cut.
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11 May 2012
Brazilian flat steel re-roller Mangels will commission a new pickling line at its São Bernardo do Campo plant in São Paulo state on Monday May 14.
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11 May 2012
BlueScope Steel North America is considering installing a new caster and electric furnace (EF) at its North Star BlueScope Steel LLC facility in Delta, Ohio, but is waiting for the market to improve before making concrete plans, a top executive said.
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10 May 2012
ArcelorMittal Brasil expects to achieve increased iron ore capacity of 3.5 million tpy at its Andrade mine in the fourth quarter of 2012, the steelmaking parent group said in its first-quarter global earnings report.
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10 May 2012
Hot rolled coil (HRC) import prices into Turkey fell on Thursday May 10, as traders snapped up a few of the offers from Eastern Europe.
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10 May 2012
Cold rolled coil (CRC) import prices into Turkey narrowed slightly this week, though importers added that recent low levels of demand may continue until after the summer.
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10 May 2012
Prices for cold rolled coil (CRC) in the Turkish domestic market this week were held to the $10 per tonne spread seen last week, as slight offer price decreases from mills saw scant uptake.
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10 May 2012
European mills will be forced to make significant cuts in production in the next few years, delegates said at the Eurometal Steel Net Forum in Milan on Thursday May 10.
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10 May 2012
Bleak news wherever we look. We see examples of low prices for all steel products being achieved in China, India, Brazil, the USA and Europe. The Russian market is weak and the CIS mills are now eyeing all export markets to get rid of serious tonnage.
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10 May 2012
European demand for steel will not improve in 2012, Ulrich Becker, president of Eurometal and chief operating officer of Klockner & Co, told the Eurometal Steel Net Forum in Milan on Thursday May 10.
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10 May 2012
The average selling price for ArcelorMittal’s flat steel products in Europe fell by almost 10% quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of 2012, according to the company’s financial results for the period.
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10 May 2012
Prices for hot rolled coil (HRC) in Turkey’s domestic market remained static this week, as lower offers from mills brought official and negotiated prices closer.
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10 May 2012
ArcelorMittal’s Florange blast furnaces are likely to continue being idled for the third quarter of 2012, ceo Lakshmi Mittal said on Thursday May 10.
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10 May 2012
ArcelorMittal South Africa (Amsa) experienced a challenging quarter for its chemicals and coke business in the first three months of 2012 because of unforeseen ferro-chrome smelter closures, the company said on Thursday May 10.
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10 May 2012
Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) is to start loading its first shipment of steel slabs from its operations in Teesside in the UK on Friday May 11, the UK subsidiary of the steelmaker said on Thursday May 10.
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10 May 2012
Net profits at Al Jazeera Steel Products rose by more than 12% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, as a new record for its merchant bar production and a rebound in pipe demand boosted earnings, the company’s latest financial statement shows.
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10 May 2012
Erdemir has slashed its offer prices for hot rolled coil by $40 per tonne as demand remains muted in Turkey’s domestic market, two sources said.
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10 May 2012
ArcelorMittal’s earnings fell by nearly a quarter year-on-year in the first three months of 2012, as the company’s European flat products unit continued to operate at a loss.
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10 May 2012
The Serbian government has extended the deadline for binding bids for Zelezara Smederevo (ZS) to June 11, a source told Metal Bulletin.
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10 May 2012
Lower energy costs, specifically for natural gas, are driving new technology and investment in the steel industry and have the potential to start a steelmaking renaissance in North America, according to a panel of industry executives at the AISTech conference in Atlanta.
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09 May 2012
ArcelorMittal España is to restart production at its Sestao operations in Bilbao, Spain, in mid-June 2012, a spokesman told Metal Bulletin on Wednesday May 9.
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09 May 2012
The Chinese government needs to push for a restructuring of the country’s steel industry as market forces alone will not be enough, Zhang Xiaogang, president of Anshan Steel said.
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09 May 2012
Representatives from the American steel industry have welcomed the coming into force next week (May 15) of the USA’s latest free-trade agreement (FTA), agreed with Colombia.
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09 May 2012
Japanese steel output in the second quarter of 2012 is expected to rise to its highest level since the fourth quarter of 2010, with demand proving stronger than anticipated, the country’s ministry of economy, trade and industry (Meti) said this week.
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09 May 2012
US mines, metal producers and fabricators all added jobs during April, helping to boost the nation’s manufacturing employment base by about 0.3 percent from March.
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08 May 2012
A combination of high fuel prices and stricter emission standards will result in the widespread adoption of cleaner, more-economical vehicles using hundreds of pounds less raw materials than current vehicles, according to automotive materials analyst Richard Schultz.
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08 May 2012
US raw steel output totaled 1,963,000 net tons last week, down 1.7 percent from 1,997,000 tons the previous week, as mills operated at an average capability utilization rate of 79.4 percent.
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08 May 2012
Francoise Hollande’s victory in the French presidential election could lead to an improvement in government/union relations, union representatives told Metal Bulletin on Tuesday May 8.
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08 May 2012
US steelmaker Nucor has won an award from the South Carolina Manufacturers Assn for its commitment to environmental excellence, the company said.